


Figuring Out Grace

by tommygirl



Category: Joan of Arcadia
Genre: Community: 15_minute_ficlets, F/M, Post Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-24
Updated: 2013-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-09 09:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/772800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommygirl/pseuds/tommygirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spoilers through season one.  Luke trying to work up the courage to talk to Grace, all the while attempting to figure out exactly what's going on between the two of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Figuring Out Grace

He didn't expect it. To feel such devotion to someone, to feel his heart constrict for a brief interlude whenever she walked by, to feel his hands shake slightly whenever she accused him of gawking at her. No, Luke was as surprised by his feelings for Grace as everyone else appeared to be.

He knew logically that a girl like Glynnis was much more suitable for him. They were one in the same in many ways. But there had been something missing with Glynnis, something he didn’t quite understand (a notion that was almost unheard of to him) except that he knew it existed. This pseudo barrier between them or maybe just a lack of kinetic energy to break through it—either way, it wasn’t right.

Not like his parents. Not like Joan and Adam or the way Kevin was with any of the girls he was with. Luke went through the motions, attempting to capture it as though he could make the _IT_ grow out of sheer will and enough mimicking of more steamy couples.

Yeah, Luke bemoaned, it truly was sad when his mother and father had more passion than two fifteen-year-olds.

It didn’t work and that elusive _IT_ (chemistry, passion, whatever you wanted to call it) never came into the picture for him and Glynnis. And if he were honest with himself, he knew that her discovery of make-up and the pretty-on-the-outside version of Glynnis was nothing but an opportunity he couldn’t pass up. So he spouted out something about not being cool enough for the new Glynnis and how she had outgrown him or something. Which might’ve been true, but they both knew his real motivation. It lingered in the air the way he worried his stupid crush did.

 _You’re not Grace_ , it said silently. _You’re not the person I think about before I go to sleep and first thing when I wake up. You’re not that girl for me. You're not the girl I could give a rock to and she would get it._

Now here he was, overcome with crazy emotions that seemed to stunt his ability to think rationally, as he attempted to work up the courage to talk to Grace. Joan had warned him not to cause trouble during her first everything’s-fine-even-though-it’s-not-movie-night since her release from the hospital. He had made the mistake of asking if Grace had asked about him, then let it slip that they had kissed, and, of course, ended up watching Joan curl up in a corner and feign nausea (sometimes he really loved his sister). But he needed to talk to Grace. He knew that as well as he knew the periodic chart (aka – easy). And, for the first time, he missed his relationship with Glynnis. Because it had made sense and he knew how to react when his brain was functioning properly. But Grace was an enigma, a black hole that constantly changed its dimensions and depth all the while sucking you into its vortex with little chance for escape.

Luke was fairly certain he wasn’t going to make it out of this…whatever it was…with Grace alive.

He’d walked by the room seven times (more like seven and a half if he counted the time he thought he heard someone coming toward him) and had caught Grace’s attention all of once. It was enough to make his stomach bubble and his cheeks to flush, enough to make his rehearsed speech fly out the window.

“Luke, would you stop it? You’re acting like a complete weirdo,” Joan said as she appeared from the living room with an empty bowl. She glared at him, but after a few seconds her expression softened and she sighed. She put the bowl down and placed her hands on her brother’s shoulders. Dear God, it appeared his sister was going to give him a pep talk. Was that normal?

She sighed again and then said, “Just go for it, geekboy. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? She laughs in your face?”

“Hardly the encouragement I’m looking for, but thanks.”

“I’ll grab Adam for a second and that gives you an opportunity.”

“I thought this whole thing grossed you out.”

“It does. It really, really does, but I guess there are worse people you could end up dating than Grace.”

“Gee thanks, Girardi. It’s nice to hear how I rate.”

The color left Luke’s cheeks and he started to turn to walk away but his stupid sister was holding onto him. And worse, she pushed him right into Grace. She said, “You decided to make out with my brother…now you have to talk to him.”

“I’m going to kill you in your sleep—“

Joan waved her off and said, “Like I didn’t catch you pretending not to notice Luke as he’d walk by every five seconds.”

“I did no—“

“Even Adam noticed it.”

“Since when is my love life a public forum?” Grace questioned.

Again, Luke watched as Joan waved her off and said, “Don’t come back in until you guys have figured this freakfest out. And do not make out somewhere that I might witness. I’ll go blind.”

Grace rolled her eyes and then glared at Luke. She punched him in the arm once the coast was clear, causing him to wince and wonder exactly when they had reverted to the six-year-old version of “I like you.” She whispered, “You blabbed to your sister about us?”

“She figured it out.”

“Oh please. Your sister is not that type of girl. It’s why we’re friends.”

“Okay, I told her.” She hit him again and he added, “Please stop that.”

“Why would you tell her? Because you know she told Rove and like what I really want from those two is an induction into the saccharine couple’s club.”

“I hardly think my sister—“

“The point is, what I do, what we may or may not do, is our business. No one else’s, Girardi. You got that?”

He nodded and asked, “Does that mean we’ll be doing…more…of it?”

“Not if you don’t start playing your cards right,” Grace replied. She glanced back to the living room where Adam and Joan were cuddled up on the couch and said, “Like I’m going back in there now. Tell them I left, would ya?”

“I’ll walk you home,” he said and he was elated when she shrugged and headed off. He’d come to realize that was the closest thing to affirmation one usually got with Grace.

_{Fin}_

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for word challenge # 66 at 15minuteficlets


End file.
